Bucknell University Press

Check out the links below to listen to A.W. Barnes discuss his book The Dark Eclipse:

A.W. Barnes Radio Interview with KMA Land (Iowa)

KUCI “Get the Funk Out Show” Interview with A.C. Barnes

WRKF “Talk Louisiana”

Read the latest reviews for To the Fairest Cape by Malcolm Jack:

Fine Music Radio “People of Note” Interview with Malcolm Jack

“For European visitors who called at the Cape in past centuries, its ‘otherness’–the iconic mountain, the unusual fauna and flora, the indigenous people and their alien culture–was forever the subject of wonder. This sense of awe is strongly evoked in Malcolm Jack’s new book.”
–Cape Times

“This skillfully marshaled and elegantly recounted history opens up new pathways into the European cultural and intellectual past whilst underlining the mystical, mesmeric power of the Cape, that ‘master link of connection between the western and eastern world.'”
–The Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa

Please join us in welcoming Suzanne E. Guiod as the next Director of the Bucknell University Press. She succeeds Greg Clingham, who retired in December, and will assume the directorship in May.

Pamelia Dailey, M.A.
Managing Editor
Bucknell University Press
Lewisburg, PA 17837
570-577-3674
www.bucknell.edu/universitypress

Since 1976, February has been designated as Black History Month in the United States (as well as other countries, like Canada and the UK). The month was chosen due to the fact that it coincides with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, two important abolitionists. Far from just celebrating the end of slavery, Black History Month emphasizes the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans and black culture. It is a recognition of the significant leaders, activists, moments, and achievements related to black history.

The Griot Project Book Series, published in conjunction with Bucknell’s Griot Institute for Africana Studies, produces books related to black history, focusing on scholarly monographs and creative works devoted to the interdisciplinary exploration of the aesthetic, artistic, and cultural products and intellectual currents of historical and contemporary African America and of the African diaspora, using narrative as a thematic and theoretical framework for the selection and execution of its projects.

Please find below a list of some recent Griot publications, as well as other BUP books relevant to Black History Month.

1.) In Media Res: Race, Identity, and Pop Culture in the Twenty-First Century (Edited by James Braxton Peterson)

In Media Res is a manifold collection that reflects the intersectional qualities of university programming in the twenty-first century. Taking race, gender, and popular culture as its central thematic subjects, the volume collects academic essays, speeches, poems, and creative works that critically engage a wide range of issues, including American imperialism, racial and gender discrimination, the globalization of culture, and the limitations of our new multimedia world. This diverse assortment of works by scholars, activists, and artists models the complex ways that we must engage university students, faculty, staff, and administration in a moment where so many of us are confounded by the “in medias res” nature of our interface with the world in the current moment. Featuring contributions from Imani Perry, Michael Eric Dyson, Suheir Hammad, John Jennings, and Adam Mansbach, In Media Res is a primer for academic inquiry into popular culture; American studies; critical media literacy; women, gender, and sexuality studies; and Africana studies.

2.) Venus of Khala-Kanti (By Angèle Kingué)

Venus of Khala-Kanti is a tale of life-altering loss and mystical recovery. Set in an imaginary West African village that becomes a charming cul-de-sac, the unintended consequence of a national roadwork project gone awry, the story follows characters drawn with humor, irony, and empathy. The heart of the story beats with the laughter and tears of three women. Having faced incredible hardship, they come together to build their lives anew, armed with the age-old spirit of human resilience, understanding, and tenderness. Tapping into the very soil of Khala-Kanti, Bella, Assumta, and Clarisse construct spaces, both internal and external, where they and others can rejuvenate their bodies, minds, and spirits. They build the Good Hope Center, which embraces both the physical and the mystical landscape of the story. The Center fuels the restoration and growth of the village’s inhabitants, and offers sanctuary for those who visit and those who stay.

3.) Postracial America?: An Interdisciplinary Study (Edited by Vincent L. Stephens and Anthony Stewart)

The concept of a “postracial” America—the dream of a nation beyond race—has attracted much attention over the course of the presidency of Barack Obama, suggesting that this idea is peculiar to the contemporary moment alone. Postracial America?: An Interdisciplinary Study attempts to broaden the application of this idea by situating it in contexts that demonstrate how the idea of the postracial has been with America since its founding and will continue to be long after the Obama administration’s term ends. The chapters in this volume explore the idea of the postracial in the United States through a variety of critical lenses, including film studies; literature; aesthetics and conceptual thinking; politics; media representations; race in relation to gender, identity, and sexuality; and personal experiences. Through this diverse interdisciplinary exploration, this collection skeptically weighs the implications of holding up a postracial culture as an admirable goal for the United States.

4.) Don’t Whisper Too Much and Portrait of a Young Artiste from Bona Mbella (By Frieda Ekotto)

Don’t Whisper Too Much was the first work of fiction by an African writer to present love stories between African women in a positive light. Bona Mbella is the second. In presenting the emotional and romantic lives of gay, African women, Ekotto comments upon larger issues that affect these women, including Africa as a post-colonial space, the circulation of knowledge, and the question of who writes history. In recounting the beauty and complexity of relationships between women who love women, Ekotto inscribes these stories within African history, both past and present. Don’t Whisper Too Much follows young village girl Ada’s quest to write her story on her own terms, outside of heteronormative history. Bona Mbella focuses upon the life of a young woman from a poor neighborhood in an African megalopolis. And “Panè,” a love story, brings the many themes from Don’t Whisper Too Much and Bona Mbella together as it explores how emotional and sexual connections between women have the power to transform, even in the face of great humiliation and suffering. Each story in the collection addresses how female sexuality is often marked by violence, and yet is also a place for emotional connection, pleasure, and agency.

5.) Uniting Blacks in a Raceless Nation (By Miguel Arnedo-Gómez)

The Cuban writer Nicolás Guillén has traditionally been considered a poet of mestizaje, a term that, whilst denoting racial mixture, also refers to a homogenizing nationalist discourse that proclaims the harmonious nature of Cuban identity. Yet, many aspects of Guillén’s work enhance black Cuban and Afro-Cuban identities. Miguel Arnedo-Gómez explores this paradox in Guillén’s pre-Cuban Revolution writings, placing them alongside contemporaneous intellectual discourses that feigned adherence to the homogenizing ideology whilst upholding black interests. On the basis of links with these and other 1930s Cuban discourses, Arnedo-Gómez shows Guillén’s work to contain a message of black unity aimed at the black middle classes. Furthermore, against a tendency to seek a single authorial consciousness—be it mulatto or based on a North American construction of blackness—Guillén’s prose and poetry are also characterized as a struggle for a viable identity in a socio-culturally heterogeneous society.

SUMMER 2018

Playing the Martyr: Theater and Theology in Early Modern France
By Christopher Semk

“Playing the Martyr is an accomplished study, liberally peppered with well-chosen and pertinent anecdotes and observations, managing to maintain that elusive balance of erudition and readability…The topic of martyrs, or more broadly hagiographic literature, has interested scholars for a couple of decades, giving rise to fresh readings of individual plays, authors, or saints. Christopher Semk’s book is a welcome contribution to this field and proves that researchers should not overlook, nor overgeneralize, this window into the early modern period.”
-Paul Scott, University of Kansas; H-France Review (18.132), June 2018

The Ladies of Llangollen: Desire, Indeterminacy, and the Legacies of Criticism
By Fiona Brideoake

“Reading this book is a delight. Brideoake deftly deflects certainty, enjoyably poking holes in centuries of scholarship and speculation. She is self-aware, noting that the desire to set aside a determination is a reaction to those same centuries of fruitless recontextualizing, reflecting a rhetorical turn away from defining subsets of queerness by what goes on behind closed doors…This is a long overdue contribution to the scholarly record, challenging first and foremost Elizabeth Mavor’s landmark 1971 biography, which positioned the Ladies as “romantic friends” who remained chaste. Brideoake’s readings of both early-life documents (chapter 1) and mythologizing texts published near the time of the Ladies’ deaths (chapter 7) are unparalleled elsewhere…It would be a value purchase for anyone invested in queer, feminist, or class history.”
-Allana Mayer, graduate of the Masters of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) program (2014) from McGill University; Eighteenth-Century Fiction (30.4), 2018

Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen
By Jocelyn Harris

“Burney scholars will find Jocelyn Harris’s latest book Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen an enriching read…Considering the fact that Frances Burney and other members of the Burney family feature prominently in [Austen’s] allusions, [Harris’] book, by extension, sheds new light on the cultural influence of the Burneys on their contemporaries…the book gives shape to an Austen who was an avid and grateful consumer of the latest gossip, scandals and satirical prints about those from whom she was never far removed: famous writers, intellectuals and actresses, big naval figures, the royal family. With a keen eye for detail, Harris exposes the subtle connections between the unrestrained, public laughter surrounding such figures and the more restricted, oblique laughter in the novels, thereby deepening our understanding of Austen’s skill for satire in the process.”
-Elles Smallegoor; Burney Letter, The Burney Society, Spring 2018 (24.1)

“Harris’s impressive new book, Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen (2017), builds on the work of her pioneering 1989 study, deepening our sense of what Austen may have been up to in crafting her novels… For readers willing to engage with the possible, and to consider links that do not, at first glance, seem probable, Harris’s well-written, deeply researched, and timely book has a great deal to offer… Harris’s arguments are highly illuminating. For years to come, readers and critics will be weighing the massive number of new insights in this book, troubling through their implications for our future readings of Austen, politics, history, and popular culture.”
-Devoney Looser, Arizona State University; The Review of English Studies, New Series, 1–3

Memory, War and Dictatorship in Recent Spanish Fiction by Women
By Sarag Leggott

“In recent years, memory has come to the fore of Spanish cultural studies, inspiring a plethora of articles, conferences and books. Sarah Leggott’s oeuvre focuses on the gendered dimensions of the concepts that have dominated Spanish memory studies, such as post-memory and Republican memory, while also reconceiving the traditionally feminist subjects of the mother-daughter relationship and the absent mother as important vectors of memory transmission…This book is a welcome and original addition to the burgeoning field of memory studies, and would be suitable for college-level undergraduate and postgraduate courses. It would be of particular interest to scholars working in the fields of Hispanic gender and memory studies.”
-Lorraine Ryan, University of Birmingham; Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Volume XCV, No. 1 (2018)

Don Quixote: The Re-Accentuation of the World’s Greatest Literary Hero
Ed. by Slav N. Gratchev and Howard Mancing

“The 17 essays in this volume, which also includes an introduction by Gratchev (Marshall Univ.) and Mancing (Purdue Univ.), take as their point of departure the concept of re-accentuation, initially proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin in The Dialogic Imagination (1975; Eng. tr., 1981). The interpretive and analytical openness of key works of prose fiction allow for re-reading and re-imagination in subsequent ages and through different media and approaches…The essays are intriguing in their range and methodologies, and they become testaments to the afterlife—what Bakhtin termed the “unfinalizability”—of Don Quixote in both public and artistic spheres.”
– E. H. Friedman, Vanderbilt University; CHOICE, 55.9 (May 2018)

Confluence Narratives: Ethnicity, History, and Nation-Making in the Americas
By Antonio Luciano de Andrade Tosta

“Anonio Luciano de Andrade Tosta has taken the field of inter-American studies in his own direction. Pioneered by Earl Fitz, Gustavo Pérez Firmat, Nina Scott, Elizabeth Lowe, and Sophia McClennen (to name only a few), this approach unites the Americas through the comparative method…Tosta’s prose is clear, engaging, and jargon-free. Any class or study on inter-American literature could use this book, but also any study of authors and populations that were treated in isolation before (Japanese and African Americans) would benefit from this well-researched, fascinating, and interdisciplinary work of multicultural scholarship.”
– John Maddox, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Comparative Literature Studies, Volume 54, No. 4 (2017)

Fixing Babel: An Historical Anthology of Applied English Lexicography
Ed. by Rebecca Shapiro

“Fixing Babel: An Historical Anthology of Applied English Lexicography, edited by Rebecca Shapiro, offers an invaluable collection of the explanatory front matter written by dictionary authors from the early seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries. This unique collation, beautifully edited with instructive commentary, enables readers to grasp the shifting dynamic of descriptive and prescriptive elements used by lexicographers in documenting the ever-widening scope of English language use in the documented time frame.”
– Lowell Gallagher, University of California, Los Angeles; SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, Volume 58, No. 1 (Winter 2018)

Read the latest reviews for Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen by Jocelyn Harris:

“Harris shows the inherent political nature of Austen’s satire by smartly linking her with the Hogarthian tradition of caricature. . . . Harris’s monograph ultimately leaves us with two questions, one explicit and one implicit: What if Austen’s lost correspondence was political rather than personal? And what would Austen think of celebrated figures today?”
-Melissa Rampelli, Holy Family University

“Harris’s thoroughness and detailed and intriguing analysis are exceptional. . . . Her sleuth work is incredible. . . . The twenty-first century student of Jane Austen will never read her in the same way.”
-Sylvia Kasey Marks, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, The Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer, March 2019 (33.1)

“Harris’ book offers a fascinating study of Austen’s engagement with the cult of celebrity of her time.”
-Jennifer Golightly, Colorado College, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research, Winter 2016 (31.2)

“Jocelyn Harris in this careful, enthusiastic and learned book shows how Jane Austen achieves vision through observation and creates a new and distinctive world from a recognisable world.”
-Tony Voss, Jane Austen Society of Australia

“Burney scholars will find Jocelyn Harris’s latest book Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen an enriching read…Considering the fact that Frances Burney and other members of the Burney family feature prominently in [Austen’s] allusions, [Harris’] book, by extension, sheds new light on the cultural influence of the Burneys on their contemporaries…the book gives shape to an Austen who was an avid and grateful consumer of the latest gossip, scandals and satirical prints about those from whom she was never far removed: famous writers, intellectuals and actresses, big naval figures, the royal family. With a keen eye for detail, Harris exposes the subtle connections between the unrestrained, public laughter surrounding such figures and the more restricted, oblique laughter in the novels, thereby deepening our understanding of Austen’s skill for satire in the process.”
-Elles Smallegoor; Burney Letter, The Burney Society, Spring 2018 (24.1)

“Harris’s impressive new book, Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen (2017), builds on the work of her pioneering 1989 study, deepening our sense of what Austen may have been up to in crafting her novels… For readers willing to engage with the possible, and to consider links that do not, at first glance, seem probable, Harris’s well-written, deeply researched, and timely book has a great deal to offer… Harris’s arguments are highly illuminating. For years to come, readers and critics will be weighing the massive number of new insights in this book, troubling through their implications for our future readings of Austen, politics, history, and popular culture.”
-Devoney Looser, Arizona State University; The Review of English Studies, New Series, 1–3

“Harris is well established as a guide to the wider thought-world of the author…In her latest book her expertise and questing curiosity are brought to bear on a set of themes that have not generally been associated with Austen.”
-Emma Clery, University of Southampton; Times Literary Supplement (February 2018)

“New Zealand academic Jocelyn Harris’s excellent Satire, Celebrity and Politics in Jane Austen published early this year shows what a keen political observer Austen was, and how her interest in the celebrities of the day, such as actress Dorothea Jordan and Sara Baartman (an African woman with very large buttocks who was exhibited in English freak shows as “the Hottentot Venus”), influenced and inspired characters in Austen’s fiction.”
-Susannah Fullerton; The Australian (July 2017)

“[T]his is a wonderfully rich and convincing presentation of much new material. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.
–CHOICE

“This book is an enjoyable one for anyone who has read Austen’s novels or watched productions of them on television…. Jocelyn Harris is an excellent writer. For an academic study, the usual jargon and allusions to various post-modern theories are happily absent in this book. It is packed with detail and citations. It’s is valuable for Cook enthusiasts because of its chapter on Molesworth Phillips, and the broader considerations surrounding the death of Captain Cook.”
–Cook’s Log

“Satire, Celebrity, and Politics is unfailingly fascinating in its dissection of Jane Austen, the satirist, and the text is enhanced by a well-chosen selection of contemporary portraits and gloriously scurrilous cartoons. The ‘stories behind the stories’ always make for an interesting read and Harris has produced a book that will be read with great pleasure by academics and devoted readers alike.”
–Jane Austen’s Regency World

“Jocelyn Harris’ book, which reflects on the ways in which Jane Austen’s work may have been influenced by what she knew about certain celebrities of her time, is a pleasant and accessible read…I would emphasize the thorough research into the socio-historical context that has gone into this book, and which makes it of interest to anyone who would like to know more of current events during Austen’s lifetime.”
-Rita J. Dashwood; The Jane Austen Society (Spring 2018)

In 2011, Barack Obama made a Presidential Proclamation that designated the month of June as National Caribbean American Heritage Month in the United States.  To commemorate this time when we celebrate the history and culture of Caribbean Americans, the Bucknell University Press is showcasing a few of our books that cover Caribbean topics.

Many of these selections are a part of our Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory series, edited by Anibal González, Professor of Spanish at Yale University. The aim of the series is to provide a forum for the best criticism on Latin American literature in a wide range of critical approaches, with an emphasis on works that productively combine scholarship with theory. We have also included a title from our general collection that covers national identities across the Americas, a memoir of Puerto Rican writer Rosario Ferré, and an edition of the Bucknell Review (1941-2004) that is is devoted to analyses of Caribbean cultural identities.

Celebrate the beginning of summer and National Caribbean American Heritage Month with the spirit of Caribbean culture captured in these books. Follow the links in the list below for more information on each title.

From Amazons to Zombies: Monsters in Latin America (2016)
By Persephone Braham
Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory

Confluence Narratives: Ethnicity, History, and Nation-Making in the Americas (2016)
By Antonio Luciano de Andrade Tosta

Macho Ethics: Masculinity and Self-Representation in Latino-Caribbean Narrative (2015)
By Jason Cortés
Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory

Memoir (2015)
By Rosario Ferré
Translated by: Suzanne Hintz & Benigno Trigo

Transatlantic Travels in Nineteenth-Century Latin America: European Women Pilgrims (2013)
By Adriana Méndez Rodenas
Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory

Voices Out of Africa in Twentieth-Century Spanish Caribbean Literature (2009)
By Julia Cuervo Hewitt
Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory

Out of Bounds: Islands and the Demarcation of Identity in the Hispanic Caribbean (2008)
By Dara Goldman
Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory

Caribbean Cultural Identities (2001)
Edited by Glyne Griffith
Bucknell Review (44.2)